Fragtard Race Team Strats

[Kenadian]

Hey my fellow teammates, I think it may be in our best interests to touch on strategies and best practices here so when it comes time to racing there is never a doubt about what to do when near a teammate.

This idea came to me today reviewing our latest Global Challenge Race where 4 of us were in the same race (which was AWESOME btw!!!)

Sam and I were side by side down the front straight after green and because we entered Turn 1 two wide, I got hung out to dry and lost 4 positions.

Of course Sam did nothing wrong and me getting stuck out there was just a part of racing, it is still something that could have been avoided with strats firmly in place.

The one thing above all else is that as a Team we really need to help each other so being in the same race needs to represent an advantage over our adversaries.

What would you guys think about covering the potential issues we may face in race and coming up with a game-plan should these situations arise?

...and just to be clear, we're talking legitimate strats such as yielding or breaking line to allow a faster team-mate by. We won't be discussing anything iffy such as brake checking, dive-bombing, or otherwise compromising the safety of the drivers around us or our integrity as a Race Team.

I'm sure you guys all know this anyway but I thought I'd post it just in case someone happens by and interprets the original message the wrong way.

Thoughts?

 

[Noodleguitar]

Yes it's probably a good idea to figure out some tactics in advance.

In the BSR league where quite a lot of teams run I've seen a tactic where they would drive in a team pack and then the guy in the back of it would drive really defensive, in order to give his teammates ahead of him some room to create a gap. I don't mean that he would intentionally go slower, he would just try to prevent being passed with legal moves. Doing this you'd have to be careful not to go into blocking moves though.
I think this would work best if there are 2 teammates close together. They could go two-wide in a corner when somebody behind is looking for a pass. Of course that would not be beneficial if these 2 teammates are gaining on the drivers in front.

I do think that we should also be able to race within the team, and not always give way to each other. Of course if the speed differences are great, then a pass would happen eventually and there is no point in holding each other up. But in real racing you also often see teammates overtaking each other (and sometimes they do stuff worse than that ). But on lap 1 it's probably not a good idea, because as Duke said racing with each other that early provides opportunities to other drivers to catch up or even take advantage and pass.

 

[Kenadian]

I would definitely race any one of you if we're at equal or similar paces however if one of you was clearly faster I'd work out a yield strat and communicate it over TS. As an example, if I was anywhere near you in yesterdays Global Challenge Noel I would have raced you with everything I had.

You were clearly the fastest of us out there yesterday but I had good speed as well and pretty consistent lap times so I think I could have kept up.

I also don't mind going side by side but it's something I mostly try to avoid as it almost always slows both cars down.

It may be something we could explore more in the higher license classes but in a D Class Series where punting is commonplace it seems to introduce unnecessary risk. I've adopted a brake early mindset here after my first disastrous race and it certainly served me well yesterday as I had tires at the end of the race lol.

I noticed it the most when in the final laps the guy ahead of me was defending (and doing a very good job at it btw). I think he may have even been dragging the brakes now and then and backing up the corners, regardless, braking early kept me out of him and on my line which is something I normally struggle with in close quarter racing with dissimilar paced cars.

...but I digress.

What's most important in my view is that we work as a Team which should always be a benefit and never risk wrecking one another. We all know it sux to wreck out of a race, it would suck even more if there were multiple Fragtard liveries within that wreck.

 

[Noodleguitar]

I probably won't take tires during the pit stop at 75 minutes Road Atlanta, I don't think it will be worth the time loss. Also, if you happen to pit out right behind traffic you will lose pretty much all benefit of fresh tires.

The starting fuel should probably be 130 L. I don't know why I was saying 70. It doesn't make any sense because you would spend longer time in the pits fueling that extra 60 L. It only made sense before the update that separated tires and fuel. I'm not sure how much fuel is needed in the pit stop but I have heard 45 L.

Then all you need to do is not get punted by a BMW or RUF in the corner before the straight . Oh yeah, and not crash for 75 minutes...

I'll upload my setup and my fastest lap so far ("I was on a hot lap!") in the setup thread.

 

[Noodleguitar]

I've just done a race at Road Atlanta and tested the strategy of not taking tires. You guys wanted to know my race pace, here it is: Laps

I only had draft for a few laps because the two guys (got 3rd at the start because P3 wasn't there and I had the inside) ahead of me were slippery BMW's and fast divers in general, so I fell back.

I noticed that especially the BMW's were really quick through the esses and T7 but at the end of the straight I almost plowed them over.

The pit strategy worked well I think. I got overtaken at some point and after that the top 3 all pitted early (I guess they had 70/80 L) and I assume they took tires. The problem with the strategy is that after the pit stop the tires had less time to cool off than I thought. It became a little bit of a death trap, which also caused me to spin at the top of the hill after the esses. Luckily no damage but it cost me at least 17 seconds. I noticed that without fresh tires you need to drive with a sort of Holden V8-like approach. I couldn't get the car settled before the left on top of the hill so I spun under braking. I still think it's worth not taking tires if you can control it.

Results: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=12308897&custid=141372

 

[Daunt]

Nice job buddy! Very consistent, good times. I qualified earlier and was only able to hit 1:19.3xx. So you're way ahead of me. I'm going to go the safe route and take tires and just make sure I finish.

 

[Noodleguitar]

I forgot to state the amount of fuel I took. I did a quick estimate as I got near pitting and decided to only take 38 L. I really thought it was still too much but before I even saw the white flag my pit crew asked me to pit again. I had enough to finish, but barely. 175 L should be secure enough.

If you do take tires, you'll probably want to start the race with less than a full tank, otherwise your fresh tires will only benefit you for 40-50 L, after doing 130 L on one set first.

If I compare my pit time to other people it looks like taking tires takes about 20 seconds. I estimate my time loss per lap to be close to 1.0 seconds from worn tires. After pitting I did 14 laps so in that case it would be a net gain of 6.0 seconds. It's a little more complicated than that because I pitted after a full tank and others pitted after half a tank. So I would lose a little more close before my pit stop.

By far the most people will opt for tires I think because it makes such a difference, but it now has a high price. Once again, the McLaren becomes slippery when the tires are worn out. Normally I don't have scary situations as long as I don't do something out of the ordinary. However, with worn tires I had issues in the following places:
T3: Even staying off the curb, full throttle tends to make it oversteer a little.
Esses: Requires slowing down more and getting settled for the final left on the hill is tricky.
T11 (on top of the last hill). The tires want to be replaced so badly that they pretty much force you into the pits when you go over the hill. It's a little scary because you have to countersteer.

Surprisingly, the chicane is not that deadly with worn out tires.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Hmm, somebody on the forum says he barely finished with 180 L and had 60% draft. Same amount of laps I did. I have no idea what's going on.

 

[Kenadian]

Driving style has a lot to do with it as well. I'll bet that if you're much more gradual on and off throttle that the fuel averages out better.

A lot of people also pump the gas heavily (I know I used to) and run often in high RPM's which I'm sure eats more fuel.

I noticed early on in iRacing that I'd always burn more fuel than what was posted in the forums which is why I always race heavy. I've actually run Time Trials with the posted fuel and ran out of gas before the session ended even before I completed the lap count for the race.